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Detail of the surface sampler housing assembly.

During launch, travel to Mars, and landing, the surface sampler boom and its collector head were stored inside this housing assembly. The 12-foot-long furlable boom, stored on a six-inch-diameter reel inside the housing assembly, can be deployed from this housing to acquire a sample and retracted back into it to move the surface sample in the collector head to the biological or gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer processing and distribution assemblies.

See the "Viking Lander Surface Sampler" YouTube video for additional information.